Longboat pays tribute to Sept. 11

For the eighth year in a row, Longboat Key Public Works employees worked three additional hours Sept. 10 to line Gulf of Mexico Drive with American flags. Each year on Sept. 11, 2,974 flags line Gulf of Mexico Drive, one for each victim on the terrorist attacks in 2001.

Using four golf carts, each equipped with approximately 700 flags, eight Public Works employees line the road from the former Longbeach Chevron on the north end to the town's welcome sign on the south end near the New Pass Bridge. The flags are sponsored by the Longboat Key, Lido Key, St. Armands Key Chamber of Commerce, which bought the flags for the first Sept. 11 Longboat Key tribute in 2002, and the town of Longboat Key.